1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk, and more particularly to a memory chip mounted on an optical disk for quickly and conveniently carrying out an index data input/output operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an optical disk is used as a medium for recording digital data and playing back the recorded data, such as CD-I (Compact Disk Interactive media), Photo-CD (Photo Compact Disk), CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory), DVD (Digital Video Disk) and the like.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional optical disk 10 includes: a data recording region 20 for recording data; a TOC (Table Of Contents) recording region 30 for recording data indexes; and a clamp region 40 provided between the TOC region 30 and a center hole 50 for clamping in a drive spindle, wherein the clamp region 40 does not have data recorded thereon.
A search process of index data recorded in the thusly constituted optical disk will now be described.
In order for a user to search for contents of index data recorded in the TOC recording region 30, because there is not provided an extra apparatus for exclusively reading the index data, the index data on the disk can be finally confirmed in accordance with a screen message displayed on a monitor after installing the optical disk in a disk player (not shown).
That is, when a disk is installed in a disk player and played back, a laser pickup for reading data recorded in the disk is moved to project a laser beam toward the TOC region 30 and to thereby and pick up reflected light serving as a data signal, for thereby decoding and displaying the data on a monitor for confirmation.
Also, when an optical disk driving apparatus (not shown) is operated for data recording, indexes are recorded on the TOC recording region 30 of a recordable optical disk.
However, in order for a user to search for contents of the index data recorded on an optical disk, the optical disk should be initially installed in a disk player, and played back, for thereby confirming the index data displayed on a monitor, so that there are required a plurality of processing steps. In addition, when more data needs to be searched, the job tends to take too much time.